The U.S. Surgeon General has officially declared loneliness a national epidemic, one that is more deadly than smoking, obesity and addiction. It is now estimated that living with a lack of social connection increases a person's risk of early death as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day!
But there's a cure available - connection - and it can be administered in as little as seven seconds. On this episode of Outliers in Education, we speak with a pair of connection crusaders from the non-profit, Only7Seconds. Learn from Executive Director Luke Wall and recently retired superintendent Eric Driessen (from one of the outlier districts identified in CEE's Outliers Study) about how something as simple as a text message can alter the course of a young life and sometimes even save lives.
Established in 2019, Only7Seconds is taking the epidemic of youth loneliness head on through extensive outreach programs, podcasts, video series and their unique Connection Curriculum designed to equip, empower and inspire teachers and students to create the connections that can literally save their lives.
You can find out more about Only7Seconds at:
only7seconds.com
Also from Only7Seconds:
"Outliers in Education" is a project of CEE, The Center for Educational Effectiveness. Find out more at effectiveness.org.
Produced by Jamie Howell at Howell at the Moon Productions.
The U.S. Surgeon General has officially declared loneliness a national epidemic, one that is more deadly than smoking, obesity and addiction. It is now estimated that living with a lack of social connection increases a person's risk of early death as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day!
But there's a cure available - connection - and it can be administered in as little as seven seconds. On this episode of Outliers in Education, we speak with a pair of connection crusaders from the non-profit, Only7Seconds. Learn from Executive Director Luke Wall and recently retired superintendent Eric Driessen (from one of the outlier districts identified in CEE's Outliers Study) about how something as simple as a text message can alter the course of a young life and sometimes even save lives.
Established in 2019, Only7Seconds is taking the epidemic of youth loneliness head on through extensive outreach programs, podcasts, video series and their unique Connection Curriculum designed to equip, empower and inspire teachers and students to create the connections that can literally save their lives.
You can find out more about Only7Seconds at:
only7seconds.com
Also from Only7Seconds:
"Outliers in Education" is a project of CEE, The Center for Educational Effectiveness. Find out more at effectiveness.org.
Produced by Jamie Howell at Howell at the Moon Productions.
Outliers in Education is brought to you by CEE, the Center for Educational Effectiveness. Better data, better decisions, better schools. To find out more, visit effectivenessorg.
Eric Price:The new epidemic in America is no longer COVID. According to the US Surgeon General, it's loneliness. That's especially true and especially dangerous for our school age populations. But according to one group of connection crusaders, there's a remedy out there that can take a little as seven seconds to administer. We'll find out more about that on today's episode of Outliers in Education.
Eric Driessen:I think we really need to change how we look at what we do in schools.
Ad VO:Everything that we do as educators, it just comes back to people.
Erich Bolz:I love it, even when it's hard, especially when it's hard.
Eric Driessen:Ultimately, this is about what's best for kids.
Eric Price:Greetings one and all. Welcome to another episode of Outliers in Education. I'm your co-host, eric Price, podcasting through the holidays along with my dear friend Eric Boles from the Center for Educational Effectiveness. You know, bolesy, I'm awfully glad we're friends because, according to some of the research I've been doing, having close friends can literally be a lifesaver. Remember back when the US Surgeon General was all about trying to get us to understand the dangers of smoking? Well, now they've found something even more dangerous to look out for, and it's loneliness. According to an advisory report that came out just this May, it turns out that the lack of social connection is as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and the Surgeon General is calling it a full-blown epidemic of loneliness and isolation. What do you think about that?
Erich Bolz:Yep, ep, that's a fact and that's why I am now a half a pack a day smoker. And in reality we touched on some of this recently in Season 2, episode 11, with CK Bray talking about brain optimization. So it's great to be able to follow up with a slightly different context. A few more statistics to ponder before we really get into it. The rate of loneliness among young adults has been increasing every year since 1976, to the point that today the amount of time young people spend in person with friends has dropped by 70%, and COVID certainly didn't help things. Being socially disconnected has led to greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety and even premature death. What's worse, it's doing that at rates even worse than those associated with obesity and addiction, as virtually any educator working today will tell you. It also leaves system really challenging days at school. Lonely kids are often sick, depressed, sometimes angry.
Eric Price:Yeah, you know, it's really hard to believe and it's hard to know what to do about it. Or maybe is it. Today on the show we have two guests who are part of a growing movement aimed at addressing this epidemic of youth loneliness and, according to them, it's not necessarily as hard a problem to solve as you might think. In fact, they believe you can have a real impact in as little as seven seconds. Hence the name of their nonprofit, only Seven Seconds, an organization that has been taking aim at this lack of connection since 2019. We're pleased to have with us Luke Wall, executive director of Only Seven Seconds, and with him former superintendent Eric Dresen from the Brewster School District, one of the districts that rose to the top of our study in outlier schools across the state of Washington. Luke and Eric, welcome to the show, thank you. Thanks for having us. Hey, luke, let's start with you. Could you kind of just fill us in a little bit on the name Only Seven Seconds and what that refers to?
Luke Wall:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you again for having us today. I'm super excited to be here. The quick story of Only Seven Seconds and where it came from was I've got a. I call him my little brother. He's actually six foot five. He towers above me.
Luke Wall:He's 11 years younger than I am and when he was in high school he experienced some pretty severe social isolation, actually before COVID hit, and that social isolation led to loneliness.
Luke Wall:And then that loneliness led to a slew of mental health things over the course of a really short timeframe, and it was during that time that he was a popular kid and it wasn't that kids didn't care about it, it was just that they simply forgot. It was out of sight, out of mind. It was the fact that kids spend five hours a day on social media but they don't put down their phone and talk to their friend. And because of that, four weeks in, my mom gets upset, as any good mom does, and she goes. How long would it take for one of your friends to send a text that says I care about you, you matter to me? To dial his phone number hits, and if that had happened at any time during those five weeks, it would have really stopped or at least been a huge deterrent in the mental health spiral he experienced. So she went out to her phone, typed out I care about you on her phone, took her roughly seven seconds and the name of the organization and idea was born.
Erich Bolz:That's fantastic and also really interested in how you got involved. Mr Eric Driesen and those of you who are loyal podcast listeners will recognize that Mr Driesen is a two time now podcaster on outliers in education rose to fame here on episode four with Brewster, building Bridges to Family and Community.
Eric Driessen:You know I got involved a little bit when I was as a superintendent, you know, looking for something to help our kids, our students, with SEL found that most of them were kind of a six to eight week program and then it kind of just faded away, and so that was real frustrating for me. Through that SEL program whatever one it is, you know, the awareness level of other people carrying things like that was at a pretty high level. But just shortly after those units were done then people kind of headed back into default mode, and so then Luke and I started meeting and talking and talking about only seven seconds, and so I really started seeing where this was a way to keep that awareness level, that connection level, at a higher level throughout the year. And so, bench, I retired as a result of that. It gave me some more time to kind of help support Lou and the work that he's doing.
Eric Price:How are you seeing this epidemic of loneliness play out in schools, and how do we even begin to address that?
Luke Wall:Yeah, it's a great question. I'll give a little context here. We do a lot of work in schools, primarily in here in Norris and for Washington. We started out as an awareness campaign, primarily for everyone and anyone. We talk about loneliness and it hits every single person. As we've started to refine the work that we do, we're really starting to work exclusively with youth. Over the last couple of years I've gotten to spend a lot of time in school assemblies. I've gotten to spend a lot of time in individual classrooms, working with teachers, working with students.
Luke Wall:It comes as no surprise, I think, to probably almost anyone listening, especially on the back of COVID, that loneliness, no matter what someone is experiencing, whether it is lack of resources, whether it is lack of access to care, whether they're experiencing grief or loss or whether they're just experiencing a challenging day that loneliness intertwines with every aspect of what people experience, especially our kids. The one anecdote I'll give here is recently we've been doing some data results live. While we're doing school assemblies the most recent one we did we have students say in the last week how lonely have you felt? On a scale of one to 10? 10 being, I have felt lonely almost every moment that I've been awake the last couple of assemblies that we've done that number is over 20% that are at that level of 10.
Eric Price:That are at 10s.
Luke Wall:That are at 10s, to give some context.
Eric Price:What level are these assemblies, these high school, middle school?
Luke Wall:Middle school and high school.
Eric Price:Oh wow, Holy smokes.
Luke Wall:That's crazy how you begin to address it. There's so many factors, right, because loneliness again intertwines with so many different things. But for us, one of the things that we do is, first of all, it starts with every single person taking very small acts. It is the idea that seven seconds truly can, at least if it's a meaningful and an intentional act, that those can have really profound ripple effects. We've had stories of it changing someone's day to the extent of literally saving someone's life. It starts there and then we continue to provide ongoing programming. That's really more of building skill sets for students and youth in classroom or youth program settings.
Eric Price:Yeah, okay, eric, you want to take a pop at that.
Eric Driessen:The things that I'm seeing in schools really echo what Luke has. But one of the things that I think kind of resonates with me is the connection piece. That connection provides relationships. Kids develop relationships with kids that they don't necessarily spend a lot of time with right they're a group of friends or whatever the case might be. So now all of a sudden these relationships have grown much wider and the conversations or kids are having with the curriculum is a safe environment. So kids are feeling a lot more safe to have conversations that cause deeper relationships and so pretty soon you see a culture almost building within the school of caring, a more caring and connected group of students. So only seven seconds. We have a fantastic curriculum. It's called the connection curriculum. So we have that, for it's not just for schools but it works really well for schools. But through that this builds more relationships and connections. So then kids feel a little more comfortable reaching out if they don't have somebody.
Luke Wall:You mentioned the US surgeon general at the top of the show, and he's been on a number of podcasts. He's going on speaking tours right now and he's oftentimes asked what are some of the things that we can do to address this, and he most recently said there isn't just one policy that's going to change this at an individual level. If there's one thing that I can encourage you to do today is to smile at a stranger. Right, that takes less than seven seconds and it seems so small, but the act of receiving a smile from a stranger on the street, how that changes the things that are going on in your brain, right, that actually triggers that you feel a little bit more connected to just society at large and you feel a little bit less alone in what you go through, right, and so it is that idea that such simple little things can sometimes be that piece that can change someone's day or what they're experiencing.
Eric Price:So what those brain scientists are saying? It's not creeping people out, it's actually making them feel.
Luke Wall:Yes, exactly, exactly.
Erich Bolz:Why don't you tell us a little bit about your curriculum?
Luke Wall:Yeah, I'd be happy to. So the connection curriculum it's a really academic term for what it is. It's a youth program that individuals as teachers, counselors, advisors, anyone working with youth can use, targeted at sixth or twelfth grade. We've been in the process of developing it for a number of years. We have some internal long time educators that have been helping to develop it. We have a scientific advisory board that includes mental health professionals, public health professionals that work really specifically in the space of social health, and they have helped develop this product, if you want to call it that.
Luke Wall:But it's really a program that can be used over the course of up to 30 lessons. It has three different parts to it. Each of those parts are centered around three separate things, the first one being developing your own skill sets as students, as youth, some of those just very basic social, emotional skill sets. The second one is grounded around empathy. We know that one of the biggest keys to relationship, the biggest keys to the meaningful connection, is empathy with others. And then the third one is activity based, and that's really the act of living out that action in your community, whether that's in the school, whether that's a community at large that might be individuals and those change every single time, but each of those three different types of lessons rotate, they repeat all with the idea of building a skill set throughout the year and, as to Eric mentioned earlier that it really keeps that engagement level at a very high level throughout the entire school year, where you have kids interacting at a level of depth that you find a place of belonging at the school that you're involved in.
Eric Price:So one of these, the I Know Lonely project. What tell us a little bit about that?
Luke Wall:Yeah, that's really the public version of the connection curriculum, because we know that this, in fact, with the very first pilot program that we ever ran with our connection curriculum, it came back about 75% of students felt less lonely having gone through it. Funny enough, it was about 80 to 85% of teachers and administrators felt like they were more connected with each other, or their own school district.
Luke Wall:So, funny enough, it seemed like adults were actually being impacted at a higher level, and my guess is right is that to do it well, you have to learn it well for yourself, right? And so they really had to lean into it. And so we knew that what we're providing, while it's really targeted at youth, it is relevant for every age group, and so the I Know Lonely project is really that public version of that. So we produced the stories that are part of our empathy lessons. Those stories are a public resource, both on podcast and both on video format.
Eric Price:Now don't go wandering off on your lonesome, because we promise to be right back in about 60 seconds with more from our friends at only 7 seconds, right here on Outliers in Education.
Ad VO:The final question.
Eric Price:Welcome back everyone. Today we're talking about the epidemic of student loneliness, with Executive Director Luke Wall and former Superintendent Eric Driessen from the Nonprofit only 7 seconds. I wonder about our educators in this equation of loneliness, with COVID and not through COVID? But do you see adults also experiencing, our teachers experiencing this loneliness, and how do you see that?
Eric Driessen:Such a true statement, Eric. I mean, adults are going through the very same things and it's difficult for them to find people to reach for, and most of them feel like you know, if I'm not okay emotionally, there must be something wrong with me, you know. So they internalize that stuff and it just gets worse and worse.
Eric Price:Is there shame associated with loneliness?
Eric Driessen:I don't know, oh yes, Okay, Guilt, shame and guilt both you bet. So, anyway, this program, it works for adults as well as it does kids, and I think Luke really hit it when he said you know the fact that if you have educators or adults teaching the lessons and the lessons are only like 30 minute lessons, they're really short then you know they're internalizing that and using it. And if you have, across your school or your district or whatever, you have all the adults doing that, then once again, you're building stronger relationships and connections among your adults as well as your kids.
Luke Wall:Yeah, the statistics say that youth are the loneliest demographic. Right Across the board, 80% of youth feel lonely within the last six months or regularly. What they determine, but, that being said, there isn't one demographic or group adults on up that is below 50%. It's a regular human occurrence. It's something that, from the dawn of time, has been a driving mechanism. Right, that's how we started to advance civilization out of the need for supporting each other and within that at the same time, the reason that we are focused really exclusively on youth is we want to get as far upstream as we possibly can and so delivering results to youth.
Luke Wall:Even I have an eight-year-old son myself and I'm starting to do some of this work with him. And if we're able to train and equip people at that age, they don't have the problems that we might at our own ages. Right now on this podcast, right, I wish so much that, and I had great family and parents and teaching and upbringing, and yet there's so many soft skill sets that would have been so much more helpful to my own relationships with family and friends that I wish I wasn't having to piecemeal together when I got to my 20s and felt lonely. And so how much better can we train and equip kids today to have those skill sets at a younger and younger age?
Erich Bolz:Well, congratulations to you, Luke, for starting to figure that stuff out in your 20s.
Eric Price:We are late learners.
Eric Driessen:Exactly right.
Erich Bolz:Can either one or both of you share some success stories, some testimonials that you've heard that really point to the impact that you're making?
Luke Wall:Yeah, absolutely, and I just have so many that come to top of mind. The first one I'll just mention. I was recently at a school assembly and talking to a teacher and we had just done a teacher training. The previous two weeks we do professional development with teachers as they start to onboard. This teacher comes up to me two weeks after I'd seen him the first time and he says hey, I want you to know that I was reminded after your last presentation to reach out to a friend that I knew was struggling and in that I reached out to him and he was in the middle of attempting to take his own life. Wow, and we have since gotten him help needed and if it wasn't for hearing your message, he would probably not be here today.
Luke Wall:Right, and that's the most extreme example. I still am like recovering from hearing that a couple of weeks ago, because there's no greater outcome. And yet, at the same time, I also have stories where I had a 16-year-old girl come up to me a few weeks back in a similar situation as far as she had a family member that took their own life recently and she was just struggling to cope with the loneliness she was feeling from that void and she felt like she was the only person in the world that was feeling lonely and that no one else felt like it. And then she saw that half of the school district around her, all the other kids around her, were feeling lonely as well. She goes. I realize I'm not the only one that has been feeling this way and, even though my circumstance might be different, I realized that it's okay for me to open up to some of my peers about what I'm feeling right now. Right and like. Those are the things that we know, like that's where a change starts to happen.
Erich Bolz:Wow, yeah, it starts with awareness.
Eric Price:This loneliness. We talked about it going back historically, right, I mean. I think about you know Beatles, you know one is the loneliest number, and so my question is you know how far back is this? Is this getting worse?
Luke Wall:Yeah, I will say it's been something that's been an issue since the dawn of time. To some extent, right, but as technology has advanced it's gotten worse and worse. Robert Putnam put out a book I believe it was in the late 90s called Bowling Alone, and in that book he talks about the breakdown of the social fabric of community groups. We talk about the breakdown of everything from knitting clubs to bridge clubs to you name it. And in the social fabric that started to really fray when technology entered the space, whether it was radio and then television funny enough, I read a thesis paper on the beginning of the air conditioning unit was the first instigator, because people used to sit out on their front porch and know who all their neighbors were, right, yeah. And then the air conditioning unit all of a sudden everyone goes inside, right, but you used to sit on the front porch for your cool air, wow, yeah.
Luke Wall:And so that technology TV has become a very individualized entertainment. Entertainment used to be a group activity, right, and so now that entertainment sits at our hand, at a moment's notice, if we get bored with the conversation, we can look away from that conversation and look down at our phone. And so, absolutely, social media plays a huge role, not especially with youth, I mentioned it earlier, but five hours a day is what youth spend on their phone or on social media, not just their phone, five hours a day on social media and that is a driving driving force towards the loneliness that you feel for a number of reasons, and the surgeon general put out a separate advisory specifically around that epidemic and building awareness around that, and they really are two pieces that play together in a significant way.
Erich Bolz:I love the Robert Putt and reference. More to come on that.
Eric Price:Well, when I was listening to Luke's response, he was talking about bowling alone, and I was thinking about kingpin in terms of my bowling references. So sorry, luke, you're way ahead of me there.
Erich Bolz:What barriers are, if any, are you seeing in terms of being able to implement this more widely across schools?
Luke Wall:Oh man, the main thing I will say is there is pending the school. Every school district is very different, but there is a lot of red tape and bureaucracy that is challenging at different levels, whether that's just the sheer number of decision makers as well. As I just talked to an educator today that is going to start doing some of our curriculum, but it requires training and sharing with parents what SEL even means. Right, we're not even officially an SEL program, but there's now this stigma associated with an acronym, right, and so the polarization just of a lot of different things across the board is an issue within school districts, but then parents and in the school boards, and you name it. That plays a pretty significant role in our ability to have an impact on kids.
Erich Bolz:Related question. I think this will resonate with both of you. As I know, Brewster has been a long time consumer of our EES surveys at CEE, which is our educational effectiveness survey, and Luke and I have had a couple of occasions to connect on what we provide in terms of screening. What synergies do you see in our work with your work as you're thinking about it, Luke, and with your direct experience with our products, Eric?
Eric Driessen:Well, first, I think the work that you guys do at CEE is outstanding, whether it be academic or community culture data that we were able to receive and other schools receive is really helpful in finding gaps, figuring out strategic planning, supporting where the strengths and the weaknesses are, and I'll just piggyback on that.
Luke Wall:I'm super excited for ways that we can work together and continue to work together. We're an emerging program and with that, one of the things that's really important for us both the funders and to school districts that are interested in our work is does it work and what does it work doing? And we have some of that preliminary evidence. But to have a third party that is able to help drive some of that that shows this school district started using only seven seconds and now their students are finding belonging in more meaningful ways, that is really powerful, and so I'm excited to continue to pursue that and work together on that, because that's a pretty significant synergy and benefit to us. And then, likewise, for us to not have to necessarily recreate the wheel when it comes to surveys. But, by the way, if school ABC, you want to start working with us here are you some of CEE's surveying that you haven't done yet as well? Because that's a benefit to them beyond just what we're providing to.
Erich Bolz:Well, we are excited about that as well, and it'll be really interesting to see how this matures, eric, you had something to add.
Eric Driessen:I was just going to say. One of the other things CEE does is it brings data from other school districts. Don't reinvent the wheel. Let's take a look at this stuff.
Eric Price:In the schools, in the classrooms in education K-12, are we asking students about are you experiencing loneliness? Are we having those conversations with them about loneliness?
Eric Driessen:I think it varies, just like anything else right, the school districts, the ages, things like that. But to talk to kids in a classroom setting, there's a lot of kids the kids that maybe need this the most aren't going to speak up and so they don't really get the opportunity to be heard, even though you're having those conversations. And that's one of the best things I think about the connection curriculum is it creates a way to do that and it's done in small groups. I think that's an effective way to allow kids to be able to reach out.
Luke Wall:Because of the US Surgeon General's advisory, there is a much greater emphasis just across the US around this.
Luke Wall:So more and more I'm starting to hear both teachers and parents engage around the conversation and specifically talking about loneliness and connection. I think, tangentially though, there's been an ongoing conversation about belonging, which I know, as part of the survey that I see the administers, is really the language of belonging. So I think that there's been an ongoing conversation, but necessarily calling out the language of loneliness is maybe. There's certainly stigma attached and loneliness is very subjective, and so even when we ask the question in those assemblies, having felt lonely, we give a precursor to that of here's six different things that loneliness may feel like, and those things are like I feel like I don't belong, I feel like I don't have someone I can turn to in a time of need. I feel like and we list those things out that it may feel like versus here's the definition of loneliness, because there are so many pieces to that and it gets complicated to talk about, especially when there is the stigma that oh, if I'm lonely then something must be wrong with me, like Eric alluded to earlier.
Eric Price:Yeah, and I think if our teachers are feeling lonely and they're shame associated with it, I think this must be a really difficult thing to handle in a classroom. So you released a new strategic plan for your organization recently. Where are you headed next?
Luke Wall:with your work For the last few years. We've really been an awareness campaign and so with that we started because this loneliness conversation is for everyone. We started fielding calls from veteran affairs departments to lawyer wellness groups and you name it, and it's been really fun.
Erich Bolz:I was going to say there's a joke in there somewhere.
Luke Wall:There it is, you know.
Luke Wall:But lawyers have one of the highest rates of suicide of any vocation in the world Wow Right, highest rates of mental health admittances into institutions, and so there's a drastic need for so much of what we talk about and at the same time, we're a staff of two full-time staff.
Luke Wall:We realize that we can only do so much, and with the new advisory, there's also a lot of great individuals and organizations jumping into this space. And so, moving forward, we're going to be very specifically focused on addressing the youth loneliness epidemic, and so for us, that means really putting all of our resources not just some of them, but all of them into delivering the curriculum in more places, doing more assemblies, speaking in public to youth and about youth, creating youth programs that are for youth. That's all a part of where we're headed general awareness campaigns, but directly targeted at youth, because, again, they're the loneliest demographic that there is, and if we're going to change the culture of loneliness being a pervasive issue that's happened over the last 100 plus years in America, it has to start with the kids of the next generation that are coming.
Eric Price:Wow, there just seems like there's so many fingers here, like you talked about different groups that are experiencing loneliness, and we have a ton more questions, but this is the time in our show that we're going to move it to the recap. Remix master Bullsy, what do you have for a summarization for us?
Erich Bolz:Well, I just want to point out to our guests, since we've all gotten to know each other fairly well, that this entire process is really a behavior management strategy for me. Otherwise, I know this is all about whether I was listening or not. So yeah, starting from the top, really really great origin story I mean there's nothing more motivating than taking on something that becomes your life's work as a result of witnessing what a family member is going through and really ultimately wanting to help. So I really liked what Eric Dresen had to say about looking for something to help beyond kind of that canned SEL curriculum Not that we have anything against canned SEL curriculum at CEE, but helping students build these habits, these self-regulatory habits, is an all day, everything in school, out of school, 24 hour, seven day a week proposition. So calling that out, I think, is really important.
Erich Bolz:The notion that everyone can take small steps, can take small acts inside of schools. I really connected to what Greg Benner had to say in episode six on our show, with strategies across school buildings like warm greetings and two by 10. And those are small strategies or steps that schools can take, but individually it can be as simple as smiling in an appropriate way at a stranger across the street. Only seven seconds provides a framework for being able to take these small steps to combat loneliness and again developing SEL skill sets, teaching empathy, just really important things. You throw a loneliest demographic. I did not actually know that until the show today and then in their works, anecdotally, seeing that sometimes 20% of students report that they're lonely every waking moment of their lives is almost too much to comprehend. Tech makes it worse.
Erich Bolz:Luke's given us some required reading In addition to Bowling Alone. I think one of the most powerful books I ever read was Putnam's book that I believe he wrote in 2016, our Kids, the American Dream and Crisis Both really great books for understanding the framework of where our youth are at today. I also learned today, after 25 years of being a proud public educator most of those as a school administrator that there's red tape in school districts. In terms of how this ties to our work at CEE, we really see only seven seconds as just one of many tools out there that have the ability to foster some of the common conditions and characteristics that we saw in our outliers study, for example, providing a family atmosphere and caring for each and all children.
Erich Bolz:And to close, there really is no silver bullet. There's no one singular approach that's going to help us with a lot of our kids' concerns. We heard date superintendent candidate Reed Sarris talk recently about 58% of our kids in the state of Washington are experiencing full blown anxiety not anxious moments, but anxiety, and that distinction is not subtle, and I think our way through this complicated time for our youth isn't one simple, one size fits all approach. It's really blending the best of these methods and green shoots, and so I would say, gentlemen, thank you so much for coming on our show, gratitude to you for doing what you're doing on behalf of our kids who need our help. So so much.
Eric Price:Luke and Eric. Anything that you'd like to add to that fantastic summary.
Luke Wall:I want to just say if you're someone that is experiencing loneliness right now and you're feeling it, I guarantee there's at least going to be one listener to this that's in the middle of this and says I'm one of the people you're talking about feeling lonely. We do have a guide on our website that if you're feeling lonely. It's called the I Know Lonely Guide. There's just some really practical tips in there of what to do if you're experiencing loneliness. Please go check that out.
Eric Price:And Luke your website.
Luke Wall:It is only the number seven secondscom. Perfect, Awesome. The last thing I'll just mention if you want to learn more about this work and hear about it from someone that's far more of an expert than me, the US Surgeon General actually put out a book called Together. I recommend it to everyone and anyone. It really dives into some of the specifics around what individuals can do, what organizations can do, what even school districts can do around addressing loneliness as a whole.
Eric Price:So if you're out there looking around at onlyseventecondscom, you can find some videos and some episodes from their podcast. I Know Lonely as well. Gentlemen, thank you for really caring for and loving our kids. We need more people like you in the profession. So thank you for your work and thank you for being on the show. Thank you so much for having us.
Erich Bolz:And thanks to all of you who are listening in today. You can find us anywhere you listen to your favorite podcast or visit us online at affectivistorg. Until next time. This has been Outliers in Education.
Eric Price:Wrap it baby.
Ad VO:If you'd like to find out how to gather the data you need to help drive positive change in your school or district, take a moment to visit CEE, the Center for Educational Effectiveness, at effectivenessorg. Better data, better decisions, better schools C-S-E-S-org.